1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving support apparatus which is mounted in a vehicle and supports a driver's operation such as a parking operation or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
A driving support apparatus mounted in a vehicle is, for example, disclosed in Published Japanese Patent First Publication No. 2000-339595. In this apparatus, to support an operation of a driver, an image for supporting a driver's operation is displayed on a display. This image includes a rectangular vehicle figure indicating the vehicle, a locus indicating a predicted vehicle running course, and an obstacle detecting mark indicating a position of an obstacle detected near the running course. The vehicle figure is shown to be always directed toward a predetermined direction in the center of the image. A driver can judge based on the image whether or not his or her vehicle is about to collide with an obstacle, so that the driver can easily operate the vehicle so as to avoid a collision with the obstacle.
However, a direction of the vehicle figure is fixed regardless of whether the vehicle is now turned or not. Therefore, the driver can know a turning rate of the vehicle only from the predicted running locus. In this case, even when the vehicle is in a turning state, there is a high probability that the driver viewed only the vehicle figure may momentarily think that the vehicle is now running straight. Therefore, the driver easily misjudges the vehicle to run straight.
Further, in the apparatus disclosed in the Publication, a detecting mark indicates a position of an obstacle relative to a position of a vehicle, and the obstacle is generally at a standstill. When the vehicle is moving, a vehicle figure is always placed in the center of an image of the display, and the relative position of the detecting mark is changed. Therefore, the driver can only recognize based on a change in a relative position of the detecting mark that the vehicle is moving. However, when there are no obstacles along a predicted running locus, no detecting mark is indicated in an image of the display. Therefore, it is difficult for the driver to recognize the movement of the vehicle from an image shown in the display.
Moreover, in the driving support apparatus, the driver can recognize a distance between the vehicle and an obstacle from a distance between a rectangular figure indicating the vehicle and a black circle denoting a detecting mark of the obstacle. The black circle has a certain size or diameter. Therefore, when the vehicle closely approach the obstacle, the driver is difficult to correctly recognize a short distance between the vehicle and the obstacle.
In conclusion, a driver cannot immediately recognize a turning rate of a vehicle, a driver cannot recognize a movement of a vehicle when no obstacles exist near the vehicle, and a driver cannot correctly recognize a distance between a vehicle and an obstacle. Therefore, because the driving support apparatus cannot sufficiently support a driver's operation, a driver cannot easily recognize a movement of a vehicle, so that the driver cannot reliably avoid a collision with an obstacle.